As of the time of writing, it’s currently Blackrock Family week in Rumble so what better time to write a build/deck guide for one of our personal favorite Leaders: Rend Blackhand!
Rend Blackhand
First of all let’s talk about the former Warchief of the Dark Horde himself. Rend Blackhand is a costly Leader at 6 gold but he is very powerful. Rend deploys as a flying unit with an AoE flame breath elemental attack (think Drake) and then dismounts once killed to deploy as a tanky ground-based melee unit. When deployed (in either form), Rend also has a passive ability called Blacken the Skies which reduces the cost of your other flying troops by 1 gold (but the reduced cost of the troop can never be below 2 gold).
Rend’s talents are as follows:
Scale and Steel: Gain Resistant (50% less elemental damage) while flying and Armored (50% less physical damage) while dismounted.
Flaming Soul: Cast Living Bomb upon dismounting, damaging nearby enemies.
Legionnaire: Dismount when first taking damage. The Drake continues fighting.
The talent you choose will be situational depending on the PVE encounter or PVP meta at the time, however Scale and Steel is a safe option in most scenarios, as it can make Rend much more challenging for your opponent to deal with. The Resistant buff is also nice when the Dragon Towers are in the PVP rotation, as these towers deal elemental damage in a cone.
The Deck
The following PVP Deck is generally very powerful, but it has been designed to perform especially well during the current PVP rotation, which at the time of writing is Alterac Valley, Dragon Towers and Clean Fight. Keep this in mind when considering using certain troops or talents in other PVP rotations.
Whelp Eggs
Whelp Eggs may well be my favorite Mini in the entire game. These lil whelps are incredibly mischievous and can sow chaos for your opponent when timed and placed correctly. They also only cost 2 gold when deployed with Rend active on the battlefield.
Whelp Eggs have two very powerful use cases in PVP and both are made possible because of the incredible ‘Flame Burst’ talent. This talent causes your Whelp Eggs to explode when they are destroyed, causing an instant burst of AoE damage. You can use this to your advantage by dropping your Whelp Eggs directly onto your opponent’s backline units like Necromancer, Pyromancer or as in the picture below; Jaina, and watch them disintegrate.
Whelp Eggs are also incredibly powerful for dealing with squads or groups of units. Oh you just spent 9 gold on those Footmen and Tirion? Be a real shame if my Whelp Eggs and S.A.F.E Pilot deleted them! Whelp Eggs take around 3 seconds to deploy so you’ll have to practice a bit to get the placement and timing right but once you have it down, this Mini is a must have. Final tip for Whelp Eggs, certain prolonged AoE attacks (like Drake) go straight through the eggs and kill the Whelps instantly so try to avoid being caught out by those!
Drake
The Drake is a troop that you won’t see in all Rend decks but I think it’s powerful enough to warrant a slot. A slow, flying 4-gold (reduced to 3 gold when Rend is deployed) unit with an AoE elemental attack, the Drake can be easily countered when deployed on its own (I still have nightmares about Darkspear Trolls) however the Drake really shines when it is used for defense.
Drake’s AoE attack does huge damage and is especially powerful against Armored enemies, so dropping a Drake when your opponents units are tunneling one of your towers can be a very quick way to eliminate the threat. The Drake will then proceed to set up a minefield as it flies towards your opponents base, thanks to its talent ‘Mother Drake’ which periodically summons a Whelp Egg underneath it. When your drake is close to an opponent's tower, try to draw the attention of the tower away by (for example) dropping a Quilboar behind it. This will allow your Drake to melt it down.
Harpies
Our final flying unit in the deck is Harpies. If you’ve played against them, you know how frustrating these horrible monsters can be. On our side however, we love them! The core purpose of Harpies in this particular deck is to assert and maintain economic dominance. We will take the ‘Trinket Collectors’ talent which gives Harpies the ‘Miner’ trait, allowing them to mine gold for you, though this also increases the cost of Harpies by 1 gold, from 3-gold to 4-gold. We can of course reduce that back to baseline by deploying Harpies when Rend is active on the battlefield however.
Harpies also deal a ton of damage if they can get up close and personal. If there’s a bunch of melee units with no backline defense or if you are able to effectively distract a tower, you can also use Harpies offensively. Just keep in mind that Harpies are extremely fragile. Oh and on Alterac Valley specifically, be sure to activate the Switch as required so your Harpies can collect the gold from both nodes where possible.
S.A.F.E Pilot
Another staple, not just in this deck but in most decks right now, is the S.A.F.E Pilot. That is because this Mini is incredibly versatile and can be used offensively and defensively, can deny your enemies economy and can destroy some backline units & squads instantly. I expect that this Mini will get some changes (read: nerfs) soon but for now, she’s our ace.
Use the S.A.F.E Pilot whenever you think it makes sense. This is something that will become second nature after you’ve played enough games with her but try to extract as much value as possible. By playing the ‘Gnomish Cloaking Device’ talent which allows the Pilot to deploy as a Stealth unit with Ambush (deal double damage on your next attack), you can also be quite aggressive in pushing your opponent’s Towers or Barracks. When Dragon Towers are active in PVP, they deal very little damage to a full range S.A.F.E. Pilot because of the cone shaped attack, so especially in a close game where the timer is likely to run down, don’t be afraid to drop her behind enemy lines!
Quilboar
Continuing with another Unbound Mini, the Quilboar is another must-have. The ‘Tunnel Vision’ talent makes Quilboar deploy almost instantly which allows this low cost unit to pop up wherever it is needed. Quilboar is Resistant and therefore takes 50% less elemental damage. This makes Quilboar especially strong against backline elemental units (Pyromancer, Necromancer, Flamewalker, Ogre Mage, Plague Farmer etc) and also against Dragon Towers. Dropping Quilboar behind a Dragon Tower can draw the cone attack away from your approaching push.
The other main use case for Quilboar is of course to capture those gold chests, and deny your opponents miners.
Darkspear Troll
Last but not least we have the Darkspear Troll. After almost tossing my phone out the window playing against this Mini a while back, I decided to try it myself and I was not disappointed. When paired with the ‘Big Bad Voodoo’ talent which allows Darkspear Troll to regenerate 20% of its health every second, this Mini can swing the tide of battle. The Troll is extremely powerful against flying units like Rend (flying), Drake and Gryphon Rider thanks to its fairly long range (9) attack and it can also kill a Banshee when at full range before it reaches the Troll.
Against Dragon Towers, Darkspear Troll is also extremely powerful as it only gets brushed by the very edge of the Tower’s cone and quickly replenishes the damage it has received, meaning that it can solo a Dragon Tower if left uncontested! It also hits like a truck.
Notable Mentions
Huntress: Huntress is another unit that is extremely powerful against Dragon Towers as it is both ranged and has the Resistant trait. Consider swapping Darkspear Troll for this Mini.
Stonehoof Tauren: This Mini can be an excellent pick-up if you find you are encountering a lot of builds playing Huntress, Sylvanas or other ranged units that the Tauren can charge to and obliterate.
Defias Bandits: Cheap but effective, these Bandits can be used to deny enemy economy, boost your own economy (with +2 Gold Chest talent) or stun attacking units.
That’s all for now - take the deck for a ride and see how you get on!
